Remote Sensing: A Media Archaeology of Photography’s Planetary Aesthetics

When NASA's Lunar Orbiter 1 took the first lunar earthrise in 1966, the low- resolution black and white image unnerved some commentators. Today images of our whole planet can seem ubiquitous. In the age of the Anthropocene, an emerging generation of photographers are experimenting with how to represent the Earth through new visual vocabularies. A new planetary aesthetics is emerging which incorporates broader understandings of geological and evolutionary time and includes a networked perspective on human and more-than-human systems. Remote Sensing is a practice-based research project that explores how the imbrication of photography with scientific and technological developments in planetary science, telescopy and astronomy, contributed to key historical moments of cosmological shift. This project asks: How has photography as a medium coevolved with changing planetary aesthetics to generate an ever-changing world picture? And what traces do contemporary emerging planetary aesthetics display of this rich history?

This research project employs a media archaeological approach to excavate three key moments in the history of photography’s co-evolution with planetary science: ‘The Birth of Photography’ (1830 – 1875); ‘The Earthrise Era’ (1968 – 1972) and ‘Now’ (2010 - 2024). My analyses focus on how the medium’s optical precision and evidentiary value as well as its performative and discursive aspects informed how planetary aesthetics evolved at these critical junctures of modern history, and how these world pictures influenced human values of Earth.

The project braids theoretical knowledge with creative investigations to build a richer understanding of how humans understand the world through photographic imagery. By engaging in close analyses of the world picture over time, this project examines how contemporary photographers contribute to emerging planetary aesthetics by using new imaging techniques and technologies. My creative component – a body of photographic artworks – builds on these findings through practical experimentations with a range of photographic techniques from photograms, re-photography, large-format photography and printing, and working with collections. Remote Sensing contributes to the contemporary discourse of planetary aesthetics by bringing together findings unearthed from my media archaeological journeys and new knowledge produced through creative practice. The research outcomes contribute to a clearer understanding of the history of planetary aesthetics and the ways its emerging characteristics show the continued influence of key historical moments of photography’s co-evolution with Space sciences.